| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| Anti-Semitic remarks cloud Egypts UNESCO bid |
| 2009-09-20 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Egypt's controversial candidate for UNESCO director general failed to win an absolute majority in a ballot of world envoys on Friday, with the vote now set to head to a third round, a spokesman said. Envoys to the United Nations cultural organization started voting Thursday for a successor to Japan's Koichiro Matsuura as director general, with the Farouq Hosni, Egypt's culture minister for 22 years, seen as the frontrunner. One of nine candidates, Hosni fell short of the 30 votes needed to win election, and a third ballot was set for Saturday, the UNESCO spokesman said. According to a diplomat at the organization, the 71-year-old Hosni secured 23 of the votes from UNESCO's 58-nation executive council. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 I'm still trying to figure out why this is an issue in this case, given the general tenor in the UN, both in official comments and general conversation. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-09-20 23:46 |
| #1 UNESCO is screwed up, even by UN standards. Years ago, they even proposed UN control of speech, which even the Soviet Union thought was both excessive and incompetent. A famous editorial cartoon of the time showed three typewriters. The first was an normal typewriter, labeled America. The second was a typewriter with chains wrapped around it, labeled Soviet Union. And the third was a typewriter smashed to pieces, labeled UNESCO. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-09-20 12:54 |